Campus Gossip

uicyCampus.com was a website focusing on gossip, rumors, and rants related to colleges and universities in the United States. As of February 5, 2009, it is out of business, and its website now redirects to its blog, juicycampus.blogspot.com.

JuicyCampus described itself as an enabler of "online anonymous free speech on college campuses." Through strict privacy policies, it allowed users to post messages and comments without having to worry about identification. Readers were able to vote on which posts they found "juiciest," or most provocative. As of March 16, 2008 the site contained rumors for 59 colleges and universities. By October 2008, JuicyCampus had expanded to over 500 college campuses. Much of its content was related to fraternities and sororities.



Another site, CollegeACB (the letters stand for Anonymous Confession Board), paid the defunct JuicyCampus $10,000 to redirect visitors from its Web address to CollegeACB.

These spawn of JuicyCampus are likely to give college administrators grief this academic year, and some legal experts say current laws will not help them fight back.

High-school students have also gotten into the act. A forum called Peoples Dirt hosts discussion boards aimed at students, organized by state. This year Maryland's attorney general opened an investigation into the site, describing it in a written statement as "home almost exclusively to abusive, harmful, and embarrassing personal attacks on high-school-aged children." Peoples Dirt recently added a few college-focused sections, including a message board aimed at students at the University of Maryland at College Park.

his time, however, student leaders, newspaper editorials and posters on the site are fighting back — with some even asking administrators to ban JuicyCampus.

It's a kind of plea to save the students, or at least their reputations, from themselves.

"It is an expression from our student body that we don't want this junk in our community," said Andy Canales, leader of the student government at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., which recently voted 23-5 to ask for a ban.

She had recently come across a teary transfer student who had been humiliated on the site barely a week after arriving on campus.

"I can't imagine the disgust she must have for Pepperdine if that's what [students] say," Frazier said.